 This morning, more than 200 people gathered for a press conference held by Pikeville Medical Center, where details were announced for investing over $52 million in upcoming projects and improvements. You know, Pikeville Medical Center represents and services over 450,000 patients throughout our region and to not only make investments on our main campus and to provide the needed services but also to expand and to go out into the communities to make it more convenient for those that we serve. We want to make certain that we're providing the best possible care and we're able to do that through the bricks and mortar movement that we announced today. The biggest monetary project announced today was a $32 million investment to build a new Heart and Vascular Institute with a projected completion date of August of 2020. But the announcement of a new children's hospital definitely drew the most attention. The people of this region for years have had to send our children to Lexington, to Cincinnati, to West Virginia and those are great hospitals, there's no denying that. But the burden that it puts upon the people of this region is unreal. Phase one of that project will be the relocation and expansion of a pediatrics clinic with the completion date of March of 2019. Phases two and three will include inpatient beds and services. PMC CEO Donovan Blackburn says he is proud to be able to announce so many new projects after laying off more than a hundred employees earlier this year. In February we did a realignment of the hospital, we refocused our mission, we were struggling with some finances and that's been well known. We've been able to shore all that up, we've made some good financial decisions with the board's direction, we're now operating very nicely, we're in the black and now we're making investments to serve the area so we can continue to grow. Pikeville Medical Center currently employs about 3,000 people but officials say that number will grow as these projects are completed. In Pikeville, I'm Shannon Deskins, EKB News.